Robert Guiscard

Robert Guiscard (1015-1085) was the Norman king of Sicily as well as the Duke of Apulia and Calabria. Guiscard was originally from the minor House of Hauteville, and he moved to Italy with a band of followers seeking fortune. Fighting the Aghlabids and the Byzantine Empire, he took over southern Italy and most of Greece.

Biography
In 1047, Robert Guiscard, youngest son of a minor Norman family, set out with a handful of followers to seek his fortune in southern Italy. Robert was cunning, fearless, and physically impressive, a promising combination for military success. In 1053, he proved his fighting skills in the defeat of a papal army at Civitate, and by 1061, he had made himself Duke of Apulia and Calabria. Robert’s next step was to invade Sicily, then under Muslim rule. The Sicilian campaign sputtered on for years while he also fought to confirm and extend his domains in southern Italy. Robert’s ambition, however, craved a larger stage and he dreamed of becoming master of the Byzantine Empire.

In 1081, Robert defeated the Byzantine emperor, Alexius, at the Battle of Dyrrhachium on the Adriatic. Although distracted by involvement in fighting between the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy in 1085, Robert returned to his attack on the empire, but died in an epidemic on the island of Cephalonia. His eldest son, Bohemond, continued the Norman drive eastward as a leader of the First Crusade in 1097-99.